30 China firms to attend summit

TT, Calcutta: The Chinese consul general in Calcutta on Tuesday rolled out a list of 30 companies from the land of dragon that would participate in the forthcoming Bengal Global Business Summit.

The announcement has come five days after his French counterpart Damien Syed declared participation of 10 companies, creating a buzz around the annual investment summit scheduled to start on January 16.

"Chinese businesses attach importance to eastern India, especially West Bengal. Thirty companies will participate in the BGBS to understand the state culture and also to seal deals," Ma Zhanwu, the Chinese consul general, said at a news conference.

Every year, industry and finance minister Amit Mitra holds a press briefing ahead of the business summit to announce the scale and scope of the show. But this time, countries have started announcing their extent of involvement and sources at Nabanna hinted at more such news conferences over the next few days.

"This adds to the credibility and creates a buzz," said an insider in the Mamata Banerjee government.

The fourth edition of the BGBS, said the insider, will set a record in terms of international participation as high level business delegations from several countries are scheduled to take part in the event.

Although the state government has been claiming success on its achievements in attracting investment and creating jobs and produced numbers to buttress the claim, experts have not been convinced and opposition parties have often challenged the veracity of the official statistics.

Failure to attract large scale manufacturing sector investment has been the Achilles Heel of the Mamata Banerjee regime and the Chinese participation assumes importance against that backdrop. Out of the 30 Chinese companies, 10 Chinese companies will be visiting India for the first time.Of the 10, four each are from Jiangsu and Shandong province and one from Yunan province. "These provinces are known for their manufacturing companies," said a source in the government.

Senior state government officials like industry secretary S. Kishore and his predecessor Krishna Gupta had visited China in an attempt to get maximum participation from the land of dragon.

The state government is expected to announce some new policy initiatives during the summit, on January 16 and 17, in an attempt to showcase the state's earnestness in attracting investments. Over the last few months or so, Mamata herself has been inviting participation - she personally met steel tycoon L.N. Mittal in London and urged him to attend BGBS - for this edition of the summit.

With the government leaving no stones unturned, the participation is bound to be "exceptional", said a city-based industrialist.

"But the proof of its success will lie in investment proposals and rate of implementation. We will have to wait and see whether the buzz actually results in something concrete," he added a rider.

The government, however, is ready with a fool-proof plan to create a positive mood around the summit as Mamata is set to inaugurate the 2.4MT cement plant of the JSW at Salboni in West Midnapore on January 15, a day before the summit's formal inauguration.

Sources at Nabanna said the chief minister had agreed to attend the programme, as it would set the tone for the summit.

"The situation seems to have changed to some extent over the past few months. Infosys has agreed to set up a campus in Rajarhat and Aramco, the state owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, has started discussions over setting up of a refinery here. The chief minister wants to kick off this year's summit on a positive note," said an official in the CMO.